Sweltering Sky
by ella minnow pea
Summary: It's the hottest time of the year and Evie is visiting her icily beautiful cousin with a matching personality. What will happen? Will Caroline let her guard down? And what the hell is Brad supposed to do now that she is gone? Read and Review please....


**AN: This story has been floating around in my head for a while. It was very vaguely inspired by the book Prophecy of the Stones. I read it a couple of years ago and while not particularly good I really liked parts of the first couple chapters, and from that came this story, which was soon took off in a whole new direction. I have about the first four chapters planned out but beyond that it is very up in the air.**

**Thank you so much to the kind souls who reviewed my last story, **_**The Things We Leave Behind**_**. It pretty much made my day/week/month/year. You are amazing. This story is a bit different, definitely not so angsty, but we'll see how it turns out.**

**By the way Evie is EH-vee not EE-vee**

_Chapter One- Skipping Stones_

The summer heat had been scorching this year, and the long meadow grass had long since turned brown under the unrelenting sun. Evie's sticky dress had been stripped off hours prior, leaving her in a thin cool petticoat. She would have to explain her burnt shoulders to her mother later, but for now it was worth it. Besides, there was no one out here to see her aside from Brad. And Brad didn't really count. They had grown up together, sharing a bassinet and learning to walk on the very same day. It didn't really matter if Brad saw her in only her cotton slip.

"One… two….three…four….five…." She counted out before her stone sunk beneath the ponds surface. It was far from her personal best of twelve, and fell short of Brad's record of the day of seven.

"Losing your touch, are you now," he teased, prodding her in the side.

"Oh shove it."

She and Brad were supposed to be tending the sheep, but as usual they had turned to their usual pastime of rock skipping. Anyways, reasoned Evie, she doubted that even her perfect sister had _actively_ watched the village's herd back when it had been her duty. In Evie's book, as long as none of the sheep got strangled by a non-native albino moose with opposable thumbs, the day was a success.

It was Brad's turn to go now. He selected a smooth pebble from the ground and began his pre-skip ritual, tossing the stone from one hand to the other, tracing invisible patterns on it, lifting it to his mouth to whisper to it.

"Oh rock!" Evie mocked, creeping towards him. "Please skip all the way across the pond so might be able to beat the great Evelyn for once in my poor, miserable, life."

"If you recall, I'm actually in the lead right now." Brad replied dryly as he pulled his arm back. Right as he released it, Evie kicked him in the back of the knee.

The rock managed to skip feebly once before sinking.

"Hey! Foul play!" He cried, trying to grab her. Evie darted out of reach. He feigned a wounded expression, and began in his most understanding tone, "just because you are jealous of my superior rock skipping ability is no reason to try to maim me."

"Oh, poor baby," she called, her voice dripping with mock sympathy. She wiped the sheen of sweat from her forehead. She was the sort of girl who was almost pretty, but not quite; certainly she was _interesting _looking, with a face that would hold a passerby's gaze for just a second longer than usual. She was thin, but more in an I-missed-a-couple-meals sort of way instead of the fashionably willowy way. Her features were narrow and birdlike and her long lashed eyes a mixture of mossy green gray and brown. Most girls' hair was kept halfway down the back, but Evie kept her bronze brown locks short, and fastened in two stubby French braids.

As she prepared for her final turn, she noticed Brad attempting to stealthily sneak up on her from the corner of her eye. When he tried to bump her, she placed a sharp elbow to his stomach and sent her stone sailing, hopping on the water nine times and securing her winning streak by another day.

Brad groaned. "Feeling violent at all…"

"Hey, it was in self defense, and you're just sore because you've never won."

"I won that one time… you only got four"

"My arm was in a sling"

"Whatever."

And with a final playful shove they concluded their day at the meadow. Brad rounded up the last of the sheep as Evie tried to bribe the most stubborn ewe, Ana, into standing up with a clover. It was not successful.

"Ready to head back?" Evie asked, after she dragged Ana to her feet.

Brad smirked. "Aren't you forgetting something…?'

"Uhh….no?"

"Like your dress."

"Oh." Evie giggled, fetching it from the grass, "I'm sure my mother would love me coming home in nothing but my underwear." She slipped the heavy material over her head, and sighed as she felt the temperature rise, "Can you help me with this?" she asked, gesturing the lacing up her back.

Brad's fingers carefully threaded the ties and tied a bow, careful not to touch her to much. He was used to grabbing her waist when they joked around, but this was a totally different experience. Almost like comparing skim milk to cream, similar properties but an entirely new flavor. Evie found herself very still and quiet as he worked, not even twitching when a fly flew past her.

"There, all done." He said, exhaling. "Let's go."

He prodded a sheep with his leg and they began down the trail.

The village was relatively small, and made up of simple cottages and shops trimmed in white, with slanted roofs and packed down dirt road that connected theirs to the other mountain villages like buttons on a thread. Food was mostly from neighboring farms which and was brought in every morning for the market. Aside from herding sheep, Evie's family owned a small carpenter shop in town. Business was fairly steady, but small, (after all there are only so many chairs you need in a house,) and money was usually a little tight in their household, especially since they had paid the dowries for two of her older sisters.

When they reached the village there was nobody about, as usual in the summer months. People preferred to wait out the heat inside their shady homes, and only ventured out in the early morning and evenings.

After returning the sheep to their rightful owners, the two rested in the shadow of one of the shops, letting the sweltering heat take them over. Brad took a bite from the peach he had picked on the walk home and handed it to Evie, who munched slowly while gazing at the mountains in the distance. She passed it back to him and they continued to share it in this manner.

"Bird" Evie began, starting up one of their normal word games of stating things they saw that started with the same letter.

"Building"

"Brad"

"Boot"

"Buckle"

"What is that!"

"Well a buckle is a thing on your belt that helps keep your pants up," said Evie slowly, as if he was a small child.

"No, what's that!" He exclaimed, pointing. Sure enough an odd shape was descending the trail that they themselves had journeyed down hours prior. The town was just remote enough that visitors were rare, and exciting.

"Who could it be?" Evie wondered aloud; suddenly alert, "what's that thing next to it, a sheep?"

"No. It's a goat! It's Babette!"

**I guess that's kind of a cliff hanger. I myself cannot skip rocks, and am very envious of Evie and Brad. **

**I'm not very happy with the title. Suggestions?**

**Review please! Even if its just to say that you read it and you would read another chapter.**

**Pretty please? It'll only take a second!**


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